Sons of Liberty

The Sons of Liberty was a secret society in the Thirteen Colonies formed in 1765 in response to the Stamp Act, and the society opposed Great Britain's levying of taxes on the colonists without being represented. The motto "no taxation without representation" became a rallying cry for the society, and the society made anonymous summons at a Liberty Tree or Liberty Pole, having meetings to discuss actions against the British authorities. The Sons of Liberty set up Committees of Correspondence, protested against the British (with the Boston Massacre of 1770 and the Liberty Pole Riot of 1773 at King's College in New York City leading to violence), and made a demonstration against the British by dumping loads of tea into Boston Harbor in the "Boston Tea Party" of 1773. After the American Revolutionary War began in 1775, most of the Sons of Liberty became leaders of the Second Continental Congress, and the society ceased to be secret as its leaders became "Founding Fathers".